used to or past simple

Which of the sentences below is correct?

  1. My son used to play video games a lot when he was a child.
  2. My son played video games a lot when he was a child.

Are they both correct? If not, is there a difference in their meaning?

Thanks!


They're both correct.

The main difference between them is that the first one implies that the son doesn't play video games much any more; the second one leaves this question open.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines used to as:

used to say something happened repeatedly in the past but does not happen now